Chapter V: Part 5

The chapter-house, which is an exception in style to the rest of the building, its lower part being Early English, and its upper part Perpendicular, contains part of the cathedral library. The rest of the 15,000 volumes of books, together with some very valuable manuscripts, including the Exeter Domesday Book, Leofric's Book of Saxon Poetry, and the original charter signed by Edward the Confessor, Earl Godwin, Harold and Tostig, authorising the removal of the see from Crediton to Exeter are preserved in the Chapter Library.

In the north transept of the cathedral are the dials of an ancient and curious clock, believed to have been set up early in the reign of Edward III, although its movement has been renewed. It sounds the hours and the curfew on Great Peter, a ponderous bell in the tower above it. The peal of ten bells in the southern tower is the heaviest in England.

At many points in Devonshire may be seen the ruins of monasteries, priories, and nunneries which were closed by order of Henry VIII. Almost all of them have suffered so severely from decay, or perhaps even more from having been used as quarries, that in a great many instances only a few fragments of ruin remain of what, in their time, were large and magnificent buildings.

These monastic houses were originally founded as places to which people might retreat who wished to retire from the world, and to lead simple lives of holiness, benevolence, and poverty, serving God and benefiting their fellows. For a time the inmates did all these things. As long as they were poor they were a blessing to the countries where they lived. They preached to the people, they taught in schools, tended the poor and the sick, practised agriculture and many useful arts, such as the construction of clocks, keeping alive such learning as there was, and making beautiful manuscript copies of the Bible and of the works of classical writers which otherwise would have been lost. But when they grew rich they became idle, careless, and ignorant, and their lives too often a scandal to the world. Henry VIII, as the result of a commission which he sent round to enquire into their condition, decided to suppress them. The houses were closed, their inmates were scattered, their estates were sold for trifling sums or given to the king's favourites, while part of their vast wealth was used in founding grammar-schools.

The richest monastic house in the county was the Cistercian Priory of Plympton, of which little now remains beyond the refectory and the kitchen. Of the Benedictine monastery of Tavistock, an establishment second in wealth only to Plympton, the gateway, a porch, and two towers alone are left. The remains of the Norbertine abbey of Torre consist chiefly of the refectory, a gate-house, and the fine building known as the Spanish Barn, from a tradition that Spanish prisoners of war were confined in it.

The two Cistercian houses of Buckfast and Buckland are specially interesting. The ruins of the former, which was a very ancient and very rich establishment, whose last abbot attained his office as a reward for having helped to capture Tyndale, were bought in 1882 by a community of French monks, who have rebuilt much of the abbey in the original style. Part of Buckland Abbey, which had been converted into a dwelling-house in Henry VIII's time, was bought and rebuilt by Sir Francis Drake. Several relics of Drake are preserved here, and the house, with its fine cedars and stately tulip trees, is one of the most picturesque buildings in Devon. Hartland Abbey, originally founded, like Buckfast, in Saxon times, has also been converted into a dwelling-house, into which were built the Early English cloisters. At Leigh, near Christow, are the very picturesque remains--a fine gate-house, the refectory, and the dormitory--of a small cell connected with Buckland Abbey.

Other monastic remains, mostly in a fragmentary condition, are those at Polsloe (Benedictine nuns), Denbury (Benedictine cell connected with Tavistock), Newenham and Dunkeswell (both Cistercian), Cornworthy (Augustinian nuns), and Frithelstock (a house of Augustinian canons).

21. Architecture--(_b_) Military.

As has already been pointed out, there were in Devonshire a very great number of primitive castles or fortresses, generally on the tops of hills, and consisting simply of enclosures surrounded by ramparts of earth or of loose stones. After the Norman Conquest castles of a very different type, strongly built of stone, were erected in our county, as in many other parts of England, partly by order of the king himself, and partly by his knights and nobles, who found it necessary to defend themselves against the Saxons, of whose lands they had taken possession. By the end of the reign of King Stephen, after less than ninety years of Norman rule, there were 1115 such strongholds in England.

The early Norman castle consisted, as a rule, of a single three-storied tower with walls of great thickness. But at a later period, after the experience gained in the Crusades, and in consequence of the introduction of powerful engines capable of throwing great stones against a besieged fortress, military architecture became much more elaborate.

The castles of the Middle Ages, which sometimes occupied a space of many acres, were usually built on high ground, or close to a river or the sea-shore, and were almost always surrounded by a ditch or moat, which, if possible, was filled with water. Inside the moat was a high and very thick wall, generally with towers at intervals, especially at the corners, with a parapet to shelter the men fighting on the top of it, and with spaces called embrasures through which they could shoot arrows at the enemy. The principal gate was strongly defended by covering towers, and above it were holes through which melted lead, or boiling water, or hot pitch or sand could be thrown on the besiegers. The doorway was reached by a drawbridge, raised and lowered by chains, and was closed by a heavy door, or a strong grating called a portcullis. Smaller gates were the postern and the sally-port.

The space inside the outer wall was known as the outer bailey, inside which was another wall, also with towers and a gate, within which were dwellings and store-houses. This was the inner bailey; and within it was the most important part of the fortress, the high tower called the keep--a building of several floors, with walls 15 or even 20 feet thick--the last place of retreat when the rest of the castle was taken. On the ground floor, which had no windows, were the well, sometimes of immense depth, the dungeon, and the store-rooms. On the next floor, which was lighted by narrow loop-holes, were the soldiers' quarters. On upper floors were the chapel and the apartments of the governor and his family.

There were nearly twenty Norman and mediaeval castles in Devonshire, few of them large or elaborate from the military point of view, and some, perhaps even the majority of them, insignificant in size and simple in style. Of some of these twenty strongholds no trace remains. Almost all, of which anything survives, are ruinous and uninhabitable. And although a few have been partially restored and are now occupied as dwelling-houses, only one, that of Powderham, retains its ancient dignity, after continuous occupation that has lasted for nearly six centuries. Comparatively little is known of the history of these castles; but many of them have been the scenes of fighting, especially in Norman times, in the reign of Henry VIII and during the Civil War.

One of the most famous and at the same time one of the oldest of Devonshire castles, is that of Exeter, called Rougemont from the colour of the rock on which it stands, built in 1067 by William the Conqueror on the site of an earlier fortress constructed by Athelstan, destroyed by Sweyn, and restored by Cnut and Edward the Confessor. Its first Norman governor was Baldwin de Brioniis, the Conqueror's nephew by marriage. It, or the city round it, has sustained many sieges; by the Saxons, by the sons of Harold, by King Stephen, by the Yorkists, by rebel armies, by Royalists and Parliamentarians, but it was ruinous even when Fairfax captured Exeter in 1646. A mere fragment, consisting chiefly of the gateway tower, is all that now remains of it.

The picturesque ruins of Okehampton Castle, built, it is believed, in the thirteenth century, partly of water-worn stones from the river below, and dismantled by order of Henry VIII, stand in a strong position above the West Okement, and include the remains of many rooms and of a great banqueting hall. A French prisoner of war has left a Latin inscription cut in one of the stones.

The remains of the ancient castle of Berry Pomeroy--founded, as some think, in the reign of William I--the most picturesque ruin in Devonshire, standing on a rocky eminence surrounded by dense woods three miles north-east of Totnes, consist principally of two towers, and of the gate-house and the chapel, whose fine masonry, much of which is thirteenth century work, is overgrown with moss and ivy. Inside the original building stands a very large but unfinished mansion, of great magnificence, begun by Lord Seymour, to whom, when Sir Thomas Pomeroy was deprived of his estates because of his share in the Commotion of 1549, the castle was given. The property still belongs to the Duke of Somerset, and has thus been in the hands of only two families since the Norman Conquest.

Compton Castle, about two miles west of Torquay, a very strongly fortified manor-house of the early fifteenth century built on the site of a castle of William I's time, is specially interesting from its association with Sir Humphrey Gilbert. It is now occupied as a farm. Nearness to the sea, and the consequent danger from the raids of foreign invaders, led to the strength of its defences. The building, which is large and picturesque, includes a number of ancient features, especially the chapel and two gateways.

Lydford Castle, now little more than the shell of a square tower, stands on an artificial mound, and is said to have been founded soon after the Conquest. It was a place of great importance in the palmy days of Devonshire tin-mining, when Lydford was one of the chief towns in the county. Here, from a very early period until late in the eighteenth century, was held the Stannary Court, proverbial for its arbitrary methods of procedure; and within the walls was a notorious dungeon, used as the Stannary prison.

Plympton Castle, built by Richard de Redvers, first Earl of Devon, and the scene of fighting in the reigns of Stephen, John, and Charles I, is now quite ruinous. Tiverton Castle, ascribed to the same founder, but reconstructed in the fourteenth century and dismantled after the Civil War, has been partly adapted as a modern house. It sustained a brief siege, of only a few hours' duration, by Fairfax in 1645. A cannon-shot cut the chain of the drawbridge, the bridge fell, and the besiegers, pouring in, were quickly masters of the fortress. The chief ancient features are the great gate, a tower, and the remains of the banqueting hall and the chapel. The scanty remains of Hemyock Castle, two miles east of Culmstock, and not far from the border of Somerset, at first garrisoned for the Parliament, then taken by the Royalists, and finally dismantled by Cromwell, consist of little more than the gateway and its covering-towers, which are of flint. Totnes Castle, whose ivy-clad walls of red sandstone look down upon the river Dart, was founded by Judhael, soon after the Conquest, but it has been a ruin since the time of Henry VIII. Of Dartmouth Castle, a very picturesque ruin at the end of a promontory guarding the harbour, the chief remains are a square tower of the time of Edward IV, and a round tower of the reign of Henry VII. The place may still be seen where a chain was drawn across the river to Gomerock Castle, a small fort on the opposite shore, to keep hostile ships from sailing up the Dart. Kingswear Castle, a small thirteenth century building on the same river, the scene of some fighting during the Civil War, has been restored, and is now a private residence. Salcombe or Clifton Castle, on the Kingsbridge estuary, one of Henry VIII's coast defences against the long-expected attack of the Spanish Armada, was the last place on the Devonshire mainland to hold out for Charles I.

The square Morisco fortress on Lundy, whose plain walls now shelter cottages that have been built inside it, is twelfth century work. The scanty ruins of Colcombe Castle near Colyton, supposed to have been destroyed by the Parliamentarians, and the square tower of Gidleigh, not far from Chagford, date, it is believed, from the century following; and the castle of Ilton, two miles north-west of Salcombe, on the Kingsbridge estuary, now used as a farm, was built in the fourteenth century. Of Torrington Castle a few fragments only are left. The castles of Exmouth and Bampton have entirely disappeared; and of Barnstaple Castle, built, it is said, by Athelstan, but ruinous as far back as the reign of Henry VIII, nothing but the site remains.

Powderham Castle, the only one of all these fortresses which has been continuously inhabited since its foundation, stands--from a military point of view--on a poor site, on low ground close to the estuary of the Exe. Its chief charm is in its setting, in its beautiful park and fine timber, especially its magnificent oak-trees. Built in 1325 in the form of a long parallelogram, with six towers, four of which remain intact, while two have been restored, it has been altered and added to by many hands, and is now a vast, irregular pile of buildings. Its present owner is the lineal descendant of its original founder, the Sir Philip Courtenay who, in 1367, was knighted by the Black Prince on the field of Navarete. Successfully held for the King in December, 1645, against Fairfax himself, it was taken by Colonel Hammond in the following January after some sharp fighting, in which the Parliamentary troops, as happened on not a few occasions during the war, seized and fortified the village church.

22. Architecture--(_c_) Domestic.

Scattered up and down over Devonshire are many fine old manor-houses, some of them, in parts at least, very ancient, some with picturesque and striking features, many set in very beautiful surroundings, and others of interest for the sake of their historic associations. Such houses are so numerous that only a few of them can here be even lightly touched upon.

Not one of the famous houses of Devonshire is entirely, or even in great part, as old as the thirteenth century, although there are several that contain features of that period. Such, for example, is Bowringsleigh, near Kingsbridge, a fine old building, which although mainly Tudor, and containing details of later eras--beautiful Jacobean oak screens and highly-decorated plaster ceilings of the time of William and Mary--has some striking thirteenth century work in it.

At Little Hempstone, near Totnes, is a very interesting and well-preserved pre-Reformation parsonage or priest's residence of the fourteenth century; and Ayshford Court, near Burlescombe, a fine old house now used like the Little Hempstone parsonage as a farm, contains a fourteenth century chapel. Of the same period are the great hall, now dismantled, and the old kitchen and other buildings connected with the mansion of Dartington, which although as a whole a noble example of Elizabethan architecture, was originally erected in the reign of Richard II.

Manor-houses of the fifteenth century are much more numerous. The most remarkable of them--indeed, the finest of all the many great houses in the county, is Wear Gifford, on the Torridge, about 2-1/2 miles south of Bideford, a perfect example of an old English manorial residence, built, it is believed, during the reign of Henry VI. Greatly damaged during the Civil War, the house, which stands in a commanding situation with fine timber, especially oak-trees, about it, was for a long period occupied as a farm, and having become much dilapidated, was restored about eighty years ago. It contains many beautiful and interesting details, but the most striking of the original features are the square embattled tower with the fine entrance archway beneath it, and the magnificent hall, rising to the whole height of the building, with richly-decorated oaken panelling and a carved, open, hammer-beam roof which is one of the very finest examples of Perpendicular woodwork in England. Other good specimens of fifteenth century architecture are Wortham, at Lifton, near the border of Cornwall, an almost perfect house of the period; Bradley, near Newton Abbot, a very picturesque building with a fine hall and chapel; and the main fabric of Exeter Guildhall, which was erected in 1464 though the front is Elizabethan.

The noblest Tudor mansion in Devonshire is Holcombe Rogus, in the village of that name, near Burlescombe, about three miles from the border of Somerset. A good deal of the building is a modern restoration, but many details of the time of its foundation, in the reign either of Henry VIII or of Edward VI, still remain. As in the case of Wear Gifford, the most striking features of the house are the very picturesque tower and gate-house, and the great hall--a magnificent room, more than forty feet long, lighted by two great six-light windows. Some of the rooms are finely wainscoted with curiously carved oaken panelling. Adjoining the building is the original "church-house," consisting of kitchen, refectory, and cellar, where parishioners could cook their food and brew their beer, where the poor received their doles, and where the needs of casual wayfarers were relieved.

Another very interesting Tudor mansion, only part of which, however, is now habitable, and is used as a farm, is Cadhay, at Ottery St Mary. The interior of the house has been a good deal altered, but the exterior is much as it was in the days of Queen Elizabeth. Its most remarkable feature is the inner court, round which the house is built, and in each of whose four sides, over an arched Tudor doorway, is a highly-decorated projecting canopied niche. In these niches are statues of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth.

Another very fine sixteenth century house, containing also some earlier details, is Bradfield, near Uffculme, in which are a beautiful music-room, a fine banqueting-hall with good panelling, a minstrels' gallery, and a richly-carved roof. Altogether, this is one of the best examples of domestic architecture in Devonshire.

Other interesting and noteworthy houses of the period are Colleton Barton at Chumleigh, Flete House at Holbeton, Hayes Barton at East Budleigh, and Mol's Coffee House in Exeter. Flete has been rebuilt, but it is a fine mansion, whose beauty is much enhanced by its surroundings and its avenue of cedars. Hayes Barton, where Ralegh was born--it was thus he always spelt his name--and where a table said to have belonged to him is shown, is a rather modern-looking house, plainly built of "cobb"; but its gables, its mullioned windows and its heavy door are characteristic of the time. In Mol's Coffee House, which is one of the sights of Exeter, is an oak-panelled room decorated with the arms of Drake, Ralegh, Monk and others, in which the great Devonshire soldiers and sailors of Armada days were accustomed to meet.

Two particularly interesting seventeenth century mansions are Sydenham House, not far from Tavistock, and Forde House, near Newton Abbot. In the former, which is a specially fine example of the work of the early part of the century, containing also some fourteenth century details, is some very good carved and decorated woodwork, especially in the form of artistic panelling and stately staircases. There are also secret rooms and passages, some of which have been contrived in the thickness of the walls. The house was greatly damaged during the Civil War, when it is said to have been stormed by the troops of the Parliament. At Forde House, which was taken and retaken several times in the struggle between the King and the Commons, the Prince of Orange slept on the first night after his landing at Brixham. Charles I was there twice, in the first year of his reign.

Some good examples of more modern houses are Kingsnympton, in the parish of that name, about four miles from Chumleigh, surrounded by well-wooded grounds, on a commanding eminence looking down on the Taw; Ugbrooke, near Chudleigh, standing in a deer-park of rare beauty, finely timbered, and most picturesquely varied by wood and hill and water, and where Dryden's grove may still be seen; Rousdon, near Axmouth, built of flint faced with Purbeck stone, and considered one of the most magnificent modern mansions in Devon; Saltram House, three miles east-north-east of Plymouth, a stately building in a large and beautiful park; and Bicton House near Budleigh Salterton, whose trees, brought from all parts of the world, and including a wonderful avenue of araucarias, form one of the finest collections of the kind in Europe.

Other interesting houses are Ashe House near Axminster, the home of the Drake family and the birth-place of the great Duke of Marlborough, partly burnt down during the Civil War and repaired with stones from the ruins of Newenham Abbey, and now a farmhouse; Great Fulford, in the parish of Dunsford, about eight miles west of Exeter, owned by a family who have held it since the time of Richard I, stormed by Fairfax in 1645; and the residence in Exeter of the Abbots of Buckfast, a good example of mediaeval architecture.

Some very picturesque old half-timbered houses are to be seen in Exeter, especially in High Street, North Street, and South Street; and there are so many in Dartmouth that the town has been called the Chester of Devonshire. Nor should the fine old almshouses of Tiverton and Exeter be forgotten.

Devonshire possesses a great variety of building stone; and the materials employed have naturally varied, as a rule, according to the geological formation of the district. Some of the best houses are of Beer stone. Some, as has been shown, are of flint. Brick, which when of good colour and quality is an excellent material, has been largely employed. Many cottages, and even whole villages, such as Otterton and East Budleigh, are built of "cobb," which is a mixture of clay and straw.

Thatch, which is still used for roofing, although to a less extent than formerly, has in the past been the cause of many disastrous fires. As recently as 1866 more than 100 houses were burnt down in Ottery St Mary. Nearly the whole of Chudleigh was thus destroyed in 1807. Fires in Crediton, in the eighteenth century, destroyed hundreds of houses. Perhaps the town that has suffered most severely in this way is Tiverton, where there were very destructive fires in the eighteenth century. One in 1612 consumed almost every house, and in another, in 1598, no fewer than 400 houses were burnt down.

23. Communications: Past and Present.

In prehistoric times Devonshire was crossed by a network of trackways, some of which are to-day broad and well-kept high roads. Others form those proverbially narrow, awkward, and frequently muddy Devonshire lanes which are so characteristic of the county, having become worn in the lapse of ages so deep below the level of the adjacent country, owing partly to the softness of the ground, and partly to the heavy rainfall, that their high banks, although often very beautiful, completely shut out the view. Others, again, that once served merely to connect one hill-fort with another, have fallen out of use, and are now hardly to be traced.

These roads, probably begun in the Neolithic Period as footpaths, may have been made into tracks for packhorses in the Bronze Age, and more or less adapted for wheeled traffic by the prehistoric users of iron. Packhorses, however, usually or frequently in teams of six, were in common use in the county until the middle of the eighteenth century; and although good roads were made across Dartmoor in 1792 there were parts of that wild district where, before the year 1831, wheeled vehicles were unknown. At the present time the total length of all the roads in Devonshire is only exceeded in the county of Yorkshire.

It is generally believed that no Devonshire road was wholly constructed by the Romans, who probably reached the district by the already existing British coast-road from Dorchester. There are some, however, who think that the Fosse Way joined this road and passed through Exeter, going as far as the river Teign. The Romans made no road beyond this point, at any rate; and here, not far from Newton Abbot, they built over the river a bridge of freestone, on whose foundations the modern structure--the third since then--now rests.

Some ancient roads have been abandoned because of their steepness, or because they have been superseded by more convenient ways. Such, for example, are the lane from Crockam Bridge over the Teign to Trusham, and the Lichway (i.e. the way of the corpse) along which, before 1260, the dead were carried for burial into Lydford, crossing the river over Willsworthy Steps, a series of eighteen stepping-stones. One of the most remarkable of these old roads was the great central trackway on Dartmoor, leading from Chagford to Tavistock, 10 feet wide, 2-1/2 feet deep, and made of rough stones with smaller stones above. Although much of it has been destroyed for the sake of its materials, about 18 miles of it still remain. It was during the seventeenth century that the "Moor-stones"--upright monoliths of granite--were set up to serve as guide-posts for wayfarers during the mists that so often cover the moor. One of the most important highways in Devonshire is the great trunk road from London, which enters the county with the Great Western Railway and accompanies it to Exeter, thence making straight for Plymouth, and passing on into Cornwall.

In common with other English counties Devonshire possesses a number of hamlets whose names end in "ford," a syllable which, in words of Saxon origin, means that an old road there passed through the shallows of a stream or river. Such, to give a few familiar instances, are Chagford, Lydford, and Bideford.

Devonshire canals are short and unimportant. The hilly country is not adapted for them; and such traffic as some of them once enjoyed has been absorbed by the railways. There is, however, a good deal of traffic on the Exeter Canal--constructed in 1566, and therefore one of the oldest ship canals in England and the first lock-canal in the kingdom--but it is worked at a loss. Most of the Bude Canal has been abandoned, and only two miles of it are now in use. The Grand Western Canal, running ten-and-a-half miles eastward from Tiverton, nearly to the Somerset border--all that was ever made of a waterway intended to reach Taunton--the Stover Canal, two miles in length, and the Hackney Canal, only half-a-mile long, both connected with the river Teign, are all under the control of the Great Western Railway. No Devonshire river is now of much value as a waterway. There is some traffic on some of the estuaries, especially the Teign; and the Tamar is navigable to Gunnislake, a distance of twenty miles.

There are in our county some very old lines of stone-tramway for horse-traction; from Tavistock to Princetown, for example, and from the Heytor quarries to the head of the Stover Canal, but they are no longer in use. Down the former was brought granite to build London Bridge.

The railway from London to Bristol was opened by the Great Western Company in 1841, was continued to Exeter by the Bristol and Exeter Company in 1844, and to Plymouth by the South Devon Company in 1846. Atmospheric pressure was tried for a time between Exeter and Newton Abbot, but it was a failure, and was soon superseded by steam-traction.

Brunel's railways were made on the broad-gauge system with seven feet between the rails, in order to give stability to the trains and to allow of a high rate of speed; and the entire line from London to Plymouth was broad gauge. Most other companies, however, adopted the narrow gauge, in which there is only four feet eight-and-a-half inches between the rails; and owing mainly to the inconvenience of not being able to interchange rolling-stock with other lines, the Great Western Railway Company have converted their whole system to narrow gauge.

The Devonshire railways are now owned by two companies only, the Great Western and the London and South Western. The latter, which enters the county near Axminster, runs to Plymouth, especially serving the south coast to the east of Exmouth, with important branches to Barnstaple and Ilfracombe and to Bude, and with a continuation into Cornwall. The Great Western Railway enters Devonshire at two points; near Burlescombe, running thence to Plymouth and into Cornwall, and near Venn Cross, for Barnstaple. The Cornish Riviera Express from Paddington, which slips a coach at Reading, and, passing south of Bristol, slips another at Exeter, performs the journey of 225 miles to Plymouth--the longest non-stop run of any train in England--in 7 minutes over 4 hours, which is an average speed of 55 miles an hour.

There are some famous bridges on the Devonshire roads and railways, of which the most remarkable are the Saltash Viaduct, 2240 feet long and 102 feet above high-water mark, built by Brunel across the Tamar; the old stone bridge of 16 arches over the Taw at Barnstaple, originally built in the thirteenth century, but since much altered and widened; the fifteenth century stone bridge of 24 arches over the Torridge at Bideford, also much changed from the days when it was only wide enough for a pack-horse, but always a valuable source of revenue to the town from the money that has, at various times, been left for its maintenance, and has been used to promote education, municipal improvements, charity and other objects; and the wooden bridge over the Teign at Teignmouth, one of the longest of its kind in England. Very different in character are the Lydford Bridge, whose single arch of stone spans the deep gorge of the river, close to the town; and the ancient stone clapper bridges, of which perhaps Post Bridge is the best known, already described in the chapter on antiquities.

24. Administration and Divisions--Ancient and Modern.

In the days of our ancestors the Anglo-Saxons, Devonshire was governed much in the same way as it is governed now. That is to say, while the people had to obey the laws that were drawn up under the direction of the King, they had a great deal of what we now call self-government. Every little group of houses in Devonshire had its own "tun-moot" or village council, which made its own by-laws (from the Danish _by_, a town) and managed its own affairs. The large divisions of the county called Hundreds--groups of a hundred families--had their more important "hundred-moot"; while the general business of the whole shire was conducted by the "shire-moot," with its two chief officers, the "ealdorman," or earl, for military commander, and the "shire-reeve" for judicial president. The Devonshire shire-moot met twice in the year. These three assemblies may fairly be said to correspond to the Parish Councils, the District Councils, and the County Council of the present time. Our lord-lieutenant corresponds to the ealdorman of other days, and the present sheriff to the ancient shire-reeve.

The division called a Hundred may have been named, as already suggested, because it contained a hundred families. But the present Devonshire Hundreds, of which there are 32, vary a good deal in population. The Hundred of Black Torrington, for example, contains 38 parishes, and the Hundred of Hemyock only three.

The Parish is another ancient institution, and was originally "a township or cluster of houses, to which a single priest ministered, to whom its tithes and ecclesiastical dues were paid." Many of the 516 ecclesiastical parishes or parts of parishes situated wholly or partly within the Ancient Geographical County of Devon fairly correspond to the manors described in Domesday Book; but the whole country was not divided up into parishes until the reign of Edward III. The parishes, again, vary much in size and population. Thus, the parish of Lydford, which includes a large part of Dartmoor, and measures more than 50,000 acres, being the largest parish in England, contains 325 inhabited houses and a population of 2812. The parish of Haccombe, on the other hand, contains three inhabited houses and nine people.

Queen Elizabeth made the parishes areas of taxation, partly, at any rate, to provide funds for the relief of the poor. In modern times, with the idea of taking still better care of the poor, the parishes have been grouped together in Poor Law Unions, of which there are 20 in Devonshire, each provided with a workhouse, which was meant to be a place in which the able-bodied poor might find employment. Now, however, the workhouse is little more than a refuge for the destitute, the idle, and the incapable.

The local government of Saxon times was swept away by the feudal system of the Normans, which transferred the power of making and carrying out laws from the freemen to the lords of the various manors, and was only restored as recently as 1888 and 1894.

The affairs of each parish, since the latter date, have been managed by a Parish Council of from 5 to 15 men or women, elected by the parishioners. District Councils have charge of wide areas, and have larger powers. They are, in particular, the sanitary authorities, and are responsible for the water-supply. The County Council, whose very considerable powers extend to the whole shire, is a small parliament, which can levy rates and borrow money for public works. It manages lunatic asylums and reformatories, keeps roads and bridges in repair, controls the police in conjunction with the Quarter Sessions, appoints coroners and officers of health, and sees that the Acts relating to local government are carried out.

The Devonshire County Council consists of 103 members, of whom 77 are elected every three years by the ratepayers of the various electoral districts; while 26 are aldermen, elected or co-opted by the 77; thirteen of them in one triennial period, to serve for six years, and the other thirteen in the next period, to serve for the same length of time. The Council meets at Exeter, four times in the year. Plymouth, Devonport, and Exeter are called County Boroughs, and their corporations have the powers of a County Council. Ten other towns, Barnstaple, Bideford, Dartmouth, Great Torrington, Honiton, Okehampton, South Molton, Tiverton, Torquay, and Totnes, are called Municipal Boroughs and are governed by a mayor and corporation.

For the administration of justice the county, which is in the Western Circuit, has one court of Quarter Sessions, the Assizes being held at Exeter; while Petty Sessions, presided over by local justices of the peace, are held weekly in 22 towns, to try cases and to punish those who have broken the law.

Ecclesiastical affairs are in the hands of the Bishop of Exeter, the archdeacons of Barnstaple, Exeter, and Totnes, together with numerous deans and other church officials, in addition to the parish clergy.

The County Council appoints a number of Education Committees, who have charge of all Government elementary and secondary schools throughout the county.

Devonshire is divided into eleven Constituencies, of which eight are Parliamentary Divisions, known as those of Honiton, Tiverton, South Molton, Barnstaple, Tavistock, Totnes, Torquay, and Ashburton, each of which returns one member. In addition to these Plymouth and Devonport each return two members and Exeter one, so that the county is represented altogether by thirteen Members of Parliament.

We may recall with pride the fact that, among the Members for Devon, have been some of the most distinguished men who have ever sat in Parliament. Thus, Sir Walter Ralegh sat for the county, Plymouth has been represented by Sir Francis Drake, Sir John Hawkyns, and Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Tavistock by John Pym and Lord John Russell, Barnstaple by Skippon and Lord Exmouth, Okehampton by William Pitt and Lord Rodney, Plympton by Lord Castlereagh and Sir Christopher Wren, Dartmouth by Lord Howe, and Tiverton by Lord Palmerston.

25. The Roll of Honour of the County.

Famous as our county is for its beautiful scenery, its wealth of prehistoric antiquities, and the abundance and variety of its wild life, it is still more renowned for its long Roll of Honour, for the many great and distinguished men who were born in it, or who have been more or less closely associated with it by residence within its borders. There can be little doubt that the foremost man in the whole history of Devon is Sir Francis Drake, the greatest of Elizabethan seamen, the first English circumnavigator of the globe, the terror of every Spanish ship, and the most conspicuous figure in the defeat of the Armada. Born near Tavistock, about 1540, of humble parentage, he early took to the sea, and was only seventeen when he and his kinsman Hawkyns, in the course of a trading-voyage to Guiana, were so ill-treated at a South American Spanish port that, for the rest of his life, Drake's chief aim seems to have been to avenge his injuries by plundering the towns, destroying the shipping, and capturing the treasure-ships of both Spain and Portugal.

Among his greatest exploits were his voyage round the world, between 1577 and 1580--after which, on his return, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth on board his ship the _Golden Hind_; the ravaging of the West Indies in 1585 and 1586; the destruction in the harbour of Cadiz of ships and stores intended for the invasion of England, by which he delayed for a whole year the sailing of the Armada; and the prominent part he took in the defeat of the Armada itself, when he captured the flagship of Admiral Pedro de Valdez.

During the comparatively few years he spent on shore Drake constructed the still-existing leat or water-course for bringing drinking-water into Plymouth, and he also represented that town as Member of Parliament.

In 1595 he and Hawkyns set out for the West Indies on what proved to be their last expedition. Misfortune dogged the fleet from the outset. Both commanders died at sea, Hawkyns off Porto Rico, late in 1595, and Drake off Porto Bello, early in 1596.

A greater man in some ways than even Drake himself was the gentle, noble, lovable, gallant Sir Walter Ralegh, a man who won renown in many fields, not only as soldier, sailor, and explorer, as courtier and administrator, but as historian and poet; whose whole life was crowded with adventure and romance, and who is one of the most picturesque figures in the entire range of English History.

Born in 1552, in a house that still stands at Hayes Barton, he was only 17 when he left Oxford to fight for the Huguenots; and from that time, except for brief intervals at Court, and even shorter periods of quiet enjoyment of his property in Ireland, or of his home at Sherborne, or when he was a prisoner in the Tower, the rest of his life was spent in action; now fighting the rebel Desmonds in Ireland, now harrying the ships and towns of Spain and Portugal, now helping in the attack on the Armada, now engaged with his half-brother Sir Humphrey Gilbert in perilous and fruitless exploration in the far north of America, now attempting to colonise Virginia--an enterprise whose sole result was the introduction to this country of tobacco and potatoes--and now sailing up the Orinoco in the vain quest of the fabled golden city of Manoa.

Elizabeth, whose favour he won by the sacrifice of his cloak, and lost again for a time owing to her jealousy of his passion for one of her Maids of Honour, when he had to spend four years in the Tower, knighted him, gave him vast estates in Ireland, made him captain of the guard, Governor of Jersey, Lord Warden of the Stannaries and Vice-Admiral of Devon and Cornwall. Like Drake, he sat in Parliament; and it was while still in favour with the Queen that he was elected Member for his county.

On the accession of James I, however, Ralegh was charged with joining in the plot on behalf of Arabella Stuart, and was again sent to the Tower. During his long imprisonment there he wrote his most famous work, the _History of the World_, whose learned, eloquent, and philosophic pages proved that his skill was no less with his pen than with his sword. His stirring description of the last fight of the _Revenge_ inspired Tennyson's noble ballad.

Released from prison by James in order that he might once more sail up the Orinoco in search of the mythical treasure-land ruled over by El Dorado, he came back from that most disastrous expedition a broken man. Again committed to the Tower at the instigation of the Spanish Ambassador, he was soon afterwards beheaded on the old charge of treason, dying as he had lived, dignified, noble, and fearless to the last.

Two other heroic figures of the Elizabethan age, worthy to be ranked in the same company with Drake, are his gallant comrade Hawkyns, who was born at Plymouth in 1532, and Grenville the indomitable, the hero of that last fight of the _Revenge_.

Several other men who were born in our county have distinguished themselves as explorers, or by having helped, by peaceable means, to found our over-seas empire. Such were Davis, the arctic navigator, who was born near Dartmouth about 1550, who left his name in Davis's Straits, and who wrote _The Seaman's Secrets_ and other works; Sir Humphrey Gilbert, born in 1539 at Dartmouth, distinguished as a soldier in the Irish wars of Elizabeth's reign, but still more as having taken possession of Newfoundland, thus establishing the first British colony; Gate, who with Somers colonised Bermuda in 1611; and Wills, who perished in 1861 with Burke in crossing Australia.

Devonshire has been the native land of many soldiers. Two of the most distinguished, both of whom strongly influenced their country's destiny, and were made dukes as a reward for their services, were Monck and Marlborough. George Monck, born near Torrington in 1608, distinguished himself both by land and sea. He twice defeated the great Dutch admiral Van Tromp; and although severely beaten by de Ruyter he afterwards gained a great victory over him off the North Foreland. At first a Royalist, he joined the parliamentary army after his capture by Fairfax (followed by two years in the Tower) and Cromwell made him governor of Scotland. On the death of the Protector he marched to London, and was the chief instrument in the Restoration of Charles II, who made him Duke of Albemarle.

John Churchill, better known as the Duke of Marlborough, born at Ashe House in 1650, was not only the greatest general of his time, but one of the ablest military commanders the world has ever seen. His most memorable successes were the four great battles of Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde, and Malplaquet, in which he defeated the long-victorious armies of Louis XIV, then the most powerful monarch on the continent. By this series of victories, followed by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, the peace of Europe was secured for thirty years.

Many great Devonshire men, including some of the earliest who became distinguished, were churchmen or divines, not a few of whom are also famous as authors. Such, for example, was Winfrid, otherwise Saint Boniface, and known as the Apostle of Germany, who, born probably at Crediton in 680, began his career as a Benedictine monk at Exeter, and after spending many years in converting the wild German tribes to Christianity, was appointed archbishop of Mainz, and was afterwards murdered by the Frisians in 755. Such were Leofric, the first bishop of Exeter, Warelwast the builder of the Norman cathedral, Quivil the designer of the magnificent fabric that replaced it, Stapledon and Grandisson his able successors, Reynolds the leading Puritan divine at the Hampton Court Conference of 1604, whose proposal of a new translation of the Bible led to the Authorised Version of 1611, Trelawney, one of the Seven Bishops whose trial and acquittal formed one of the most memorable events of the reign of James II, Jewel, Bishop of Salisbury, one of the fathers of English Protestantism, the "Judicious" Hooker, author of the _Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity_, Barclay, who translated Brant's satiric allegory under the title _The Shyp of Folys_, Prince, author of the _Worthies of Devon_, Dean Buckland the famous geologist, author of _Reliquiae Diluvianae_, who died in 1856, and Charles Kingsley, born at Holne in 1819, distinguished as an able and eloquent preacher and as a strenuous worker for the good of mankind, as poet, novelist, and naturalist, author of many books, and especially of _Westward Ho!_ and the _Water Babies_, and of the words of many beautiful songs, such as the _Three Fishers_. Not a native of the county, but Bishop of Exeter in 1551, was Miles Coverdale, whose translation of the Bible appeared in 1535. To him many of the finest phrases in our Authorised Version of 1611 are directly due.

The most distinguished of the many Devonshire men of letters is Coleridge, poet and dreamer, philosopher and critic, who was born at Ottery St Mary in 1772. That, however, was his sole connection with the county. It was chiefly during his three years' residence at Nether Stowey, in Somerset, that the finest of his few masterpieces, especially the _Ancient Mariner_ and part of _Christabel_, were written. Amongst other authors who were born in Devon may be named Gay, writer of plays, fables, and songs, among them the _Beggars' Opera_ and _Black-eyed Susan_; Ford the dramatist; William Browne, the author of _Britannia's Pastorals_; Kitto, the deaf compiler of Biblical literature; Merivale the Roman historian; Rowe and Risdon, each of whom wrote books on the county; and Froude the historian, author of many books, and especially of the _History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada_.

Herrick was not Devonshire born, but it was while he was vicar of Dean Prior, between 1647 and 1674, that he wrote the _Hesperides_, among which are some of the best lyrics in the language. Dryden, again, was a frequent visitor at Lord Clifford's seat at Ugbrooke, and there is a tradition that he there finished his translation of Virgil. It was at Lynton that Shelley wrote part of _Queen Mab_. Keats finished _Endymion_ at Teignmouth. Tennyson was often a guest of Froude at Salcombe, and it is said that he had Salcombe Bar in mind when he wrote his last verses, _Crossing the Bar_.

Distinguished in other ways may be mentioned Blundell, the Tiverton cloth-merchant, who, dying in 1601, left money for the establishment of Blundell's School; Bodley, born at Exeter in 1545, founder of the Bodleian Library at Oxford; John Baring, founder of the great banking-house of Baring Brothers; Babbage, the inventor of the calculating machine; Bidder, the "Calculating Boy," son of a stone-mason of Moreton Hampstead; Cookworthy, the originator of Plymouth china; and Newcomen, a Dartmouth ironmonger, whose improvement on the atmospheric steam-engine of Savery, also a Devonshire man, was used early in the eighteenth century for pumping water out of mines.

Devonshire has been specially remarkable for its artists, of whom the most distinguished were Sir Joshua Reynolds, the great portrait-painter, born at Plympton in 1723; Cosway, who painted exquisite miniatures; Samuel Prout, the famous architectural painter, and Skinner Prout his nephew; Eastlake, the great painter of figures, and the author of books on art; and Hilliard the goldsmith of Queen Elizabeth.

Two very famous Devonshire houses are those of Courtenay and Carew. There is said to be hardly a parish in all Devon in which a Courtenay did not hold land. Courtenays followed the King to many wars. One tilted with Francis I at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Three were at Navarete with the Black Prince. Three died during the Wars of the Roses, either in battle or on the scaffold. Of the house of Carew, one was at Cressy and another at Agincourt. One was knighted on the field of Bosworth, one was at Flodden, and one, while fighting the French, was blown up with the _Mary Rose_.

26. THE CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES OF DEVONSHIRE.

(The figures in brackets after each name give the population
of the parish in 1901, from the official returns, and those at the
end of each paragraph are references to the pages in the text.)

#Appledore# (2625). A small sea-port at the mouth of the Torridge, wrongly supposed, through confusion with an Appledore in Kent, to have been the landing-place of Hubba the Dane. (pp. 27, 61, 130, 131.)

#Ashburton# (2628). A market-town on the Yeo, eight miles south-west of Newton Abbot, one of the Stannary Towns, with some manufacture of cloth. A good centre for Dartmoor, and with a fine church and other old buildings. Near it are Holne Chase and the Buckland Woods, with very beautiful scenery. (pp. 46, 112, 118, 120, 151, 173, 212.)

#Axminster# (2906). Close to the border of Dorset, high above the Axe. Interesting for the history of its church, founded in 755, and endowed by Athelstan after his victory over the Danes. The manufacture of Axminster carpets was discontinued here in 1835. (pp. 114, 150, 153, 168, 170, 199, 206.)

#Axmouth# (643). A pretty village in a combe in rugged chalk cliffs, near the mouth of the Axe. The coast here has been much altered by landslips. (pp. 66, 199.)

#Bampton# (1657). An old market-town, near the border of Somerset, with a very large annual fair, especially for the sale of sheep and Exmoor ponies. Has also large limestone quarries. (p. 191.)

#Barnstaple# (11,999). The chief town of North Devon, nine miles from the mouth of the Taw, where the river widens into a tidal estuary. It formerly had much trade with America, but is now noted only for its pottery, called Barum ware. The river is spanned by a famous stone bridge of 16 arches, dating from the thirteenth century. (pp. 82, 101, 112, 114, 130, 131, 139, 149, 173, 192, 206, 207, 210, 212.)

#Beer# (1118). A fishing-village at the foot of a narrow, deep valley near the Dorset border, noted for lace-making, and for its very extensive subterranean quarries of fine building-stone. (pp. 68, 112, 114, 123, 168, 200.)

#Bere Alston.# A village eight miles north of Plymouth, close to the border of Cornwall, was formerly noted for its rich silver mine, flooded by the Tamar in 1860. (p. 121.)

#Berry Pomeroy# (423). A village in the valley of the Dart, near Totnes, famous for its ruined castle, the most picturesque ruin in Devonshire. (pp. 100, 176, 188.)

#Bideford# (8754) is a market-town and river-port near the mouth of the Torridge, here crossed by a fine bridge, built in the fifteenth century in place of the dangerous ford which gave its name to the town. It was a very important place in Armada days, and formerly had great trade with Newfoundland and other American colonies. (pp. 114, 123, 130, 131, 194, 204, 207, 210.)

#Bovey Tracy# (2693), six miles north-west of Newton Abbot, is noted for beds of clay and lignite, and for its potteries. (pp. 25, 40, 114, 122, 123.)

#Brixham# (8092), a sea-port with a good harbour, a market-town, and a very important fishing-station, with many trawlers, stands on Berry Head, at the south end of Torbay. Here William of Orange landed in 1688. (pp. 73, 118, 128, 130, 132, 150, 154, 197.)

#Buckfastleigh# (2781) is a small town in the Dart valley, with woollen factories. Buckfast Abbey, a Saxon foundation, was restored and reinhabited by French Benedictine monks in 1882. (pp. 112, 171, 184, 200.)

#Buckland Abbey#, seven miles north of Plymouth, was in part converted into a dwelling-house by Sir Richard Grenville, and this was afterwards altered by Sir Francis Drake, of whom interesting relics are here preserved. (pp. 54, 145, 166, 184.)

#Budleigh Salterton# (1883). A small port and favourite watering-place, beautifully situated five miles east of the mouth of the Exe. (pp. 69, 129, 199.)

#Chagford# (1397). A small market-town, high above the Teign valley, on the borders of Dartmoor, forming a good centre for tourists, naturalists, and archaeologists. There are many Bronze Age antiquities in the neighbourhood. (pp. 25, 120, 191, 204.)

#Chudleigh# (1820), seven miles inland from Dawlish, contains the ruins of the palace of the Bishop of Exeter, built in 1080. Ugbrooke, often visited by Dryden, is a mile away. (pp. 123, 199, 200, 221.)

#Chumleigh# (1158), is a village on high ground above the valley of the Taw, chiefly interesting for the history of the Seven Prebends of its church. (pp. 172, 196, 197.)

#Clovelly# (621). A small but extraordinarily picturesque fishing-village, consisting of one cobble-paved street, running steeply up a narrow ravine through a densely-wooded hill-side. Near it is the Hobby Drive. There is a fine camp on the hill above. (pp. 62, 63, 85, 161, 176.)

#Colyton# (1943) is a small market-town, beautifully situated in the Coly valley, near the border of Dorset, with a fine church. (pp. 114, 122, 150, 168, 191.)